Extreme temperatures,foundation species,and abrupt ecosystem change: an example from an iconic seagrass ecosystem

Extreme climatic events can trigger abrupt and often lasting change in ecosystems via the reduction or elimination of foundation (i.e., habitat‐forming) species. However, while the frequency/intensity of extreme events is predicted to increase under climate change, the impact of these events on many foundation species and the ecosystems they support remains poorly understood. Here, we use the iconic seagrass meadows of Shark Bay, Western Australia – a relatively pristine subtropical embayment whose dominant, canopy‐forming seagrass, Amphibolis antarctica, is a temperate species growing near its low‐latitude range limit – as a model system to investigate the impacts of extreme temperatures on ecosystems supported by thermally sensitive foundation species in a changing climate. Following an unprecedented marine heat wave in late summer 2010/11, A. antarctica experienced catastrophic (>90%) dieback in several regions of Shark Bay. Animal‐borne video footage taken from the perspective of resident, seagrass‐associated megafauna (sea turtles) revealed severe habitat degradation after the event compared with a decade earlier. This reduction in habitat quality corresponded with a decline in the health status of largely herbivorous green turtles (Chelonia mydas) in the 2 years following the heat wave, providing evidence of long‐term, community‐level impacts of the event. Based on these findings, and similar examples from diverse ecosystems, we argue that a generalized framework for assessing the vulnerability of ecosystems to abrupt change associated with the loss of foundation species is needed to accurately predict ecosystem trajectories in a changing climate. This includes seagrass meadows, which have received relatively little attention in this context. Novel research and monitoring methods, such as the analysis of habitat and environmental data from animal‐borne video and data‐logging systems, can make an important contribution to this framework.     

Environmental variation and population responses to global change

Species' responses to environmental changes such as global warming are affected not only by trends in mean conditions, but also by natural and human‐induced environmental fluctuations. Methods are needed to predict how such environmental variation affects ecological and evolutionary processes, in order to design effective strategies to conserve biodiversity under global change. Here, we review recent theoretical and empirical studies to assess: (1) how populations respond to changes in environmental variance, and (2) how environmental variance affects population responses to changes in mean conditions. Contrary to frequent claims, empirical studies show that increases in environmental variance can increase as well as decrease long‐term population growth rates. Moreover, environmental variance can alter and even reverse the effects of changes in the mean environment, such that even if environmental variance remains constant, omitting it from population models compromises their ability to predict species' responses to changes in mean conditions. Drawing on theory relating these effects of environmental variance to the curvatures of population growth responses to the environment, we outline how species' traits such as phylogenetic history and body mass could be used to predict their responses to global change under future environmental variability.     

Cold truths: how winter drives responses of terrestrial organisms to climate change

Winter is a key driver of individual performance, community composition, and ecological interactions in terrestrial habitats. Although climate change research tends to focus on performance in the growing season, climate change is also modifying winter conditions rapidly. Changes to winter temperatures, the variability of winter conditions, and winter snow cover can interact to induce cold injury, alter energy and water balance, advance or retard phenology, and modify community interactions. Species vary in their susceptibility to these winter drivers, hampering efforts to predict biological responses to climate change. Existing frameworks for predicting the impacts of climate change do not incorporate the complexity of organismal responses to winter. Here, we synthesise organismal responses to winter climate change, and use this synthesis to build a framework to predict exposure and sensitivity to negative impacts. This framework can be used to estimate the vulnerability of species to winter climate change. We describe the importance of relationships between winter conditions and performance during the growing season in determining fitness, and demonstrate how summer and winter processes are linked. Incorporating winter into current models will require concerted effort from theoreticians and empiricists, and the expansion of current growing‐season studies to incorporate winter.     

Behavioral thermoregulation in a tropical gastropod: links to climate change scenarios

Tropical species are vulnerable to global warming because they live at, or near to, their upper thermal threshold limits. Therefore, the predicted increase in the frequency of warming events in the tropics is expected to be critical for the survival of local species. This study explored the major environmental variables which were thought to be correlated with body temperatures (BTs) of the tropical snail Littoraria scabra at the niche level. A correlation between BT and substrate temperature (ST) was detected from field observations which suggests a possible causal relationship between both substrate and BTs. In contrast, there was no correlation between BT and air temperature. Field observations suggest that 33.4 °C may be L. scabra upper limit of substrate surface temperature, although further experiments are needed to assess if the upper limit of physiological tolerance is actually different. As L. scabra individuals were free to choose their substrata, the observed distribution pattern at the niche level is related to L. scabra's behavior. Additionally, substrate surface temperatures were very heterogeneous at centimeter scale (i.e. from 22.5 to 53.1 °C) and L. scabra was shown to select specific STs (i.e. between 22.5 and 33.4 °C) rather than microhabitat type. Therefore, L. scabra did not seem to behaviorally thermoregulate through microhabitat selection nor aggregation. In contrast, behavioral experiments showed that L. scabra has the ability to actively select a thermally favorable site over short temporal scale (i.e. individual average speed of 1.26 cm min^?1) following exposure to high temperatures above 33.4 °C. Hence, this study supports the crucial need to integrate intertidal invertebrate behavioral responses to thermal constraints in climate change studies.     

灾难及突发事件住院信息管理系统的开发与实现

本文从系统设计目标、功能设计、结构设计等几个方面论述了灾难及突发事件住院信息管理系统的开发与实现。该系统由六大模块构成,实现了从预约管理、住院信息管理、床位管理、伤情评分、感染监测、查询统计到打印输出的灾害及突发时间住院伤病员信息全过程管理。应用本系统可规范灾害及突发事件医疗救援保障流程,大大提高了住院伤病员信息管理水平和工作效率。     

灾难及突发事件住院信息管理系统研究现状及趋势

信息工作是决策的依据和先导,如何准确、及时、高效地收集、整理、分析灾难及突发事件信息、伤病员基本信息、救治信息等,已成为医院管理信息学的研究热点问题,也是医院在灾难和突发事件大量伤员信息管理中面临的难点问题。本文就灾难及突发事件住院信息管理系统研究现状及趋势进行综述。     

Developmental events in differentiating floral buds of four olive (Olea europaea L.) cultivars during late winter to early spring

The olive tree (Olea europaea L.) is a very important evergreen fruit tree because of the high interest of olive oil and table olives in the human diet. Differentiation of olive floral buds during winter is strictly related to flowering during spring and finally to fruit production during autumn–winter. In order to determine which are the developmental events in differentiating olive floral buds we studied in four olive cultivars “Amfissis”, “Kalamon”, “Manzanillo” and “Chalkidikis” the anatomical progress of the ontogeny using median longitudinal sections of floral buds (cutting odd nodes), in weekly intervals from early February (initiation of differentiation) to mid-April (one week after floral bud burst) keeping the cultivars under the same environmental conditions. At the same time, we determined the changes in their water extractable proteins, as an index of the meristematic activity. At the beginning of differentiation, floral buds consisted of the apical and one pair of developed (odd) axillary meristems which were covered with the corresponding bracts. Floral buds showed a slow gradual enlargement in all cultivars. The sequence of the developmental events (initiation of intense mitotic activity in the apical and the first axillary meristems, initiation of mitotic activity in the second axillary meristem, development of the third pair of bracts (except from cv. Chalkidikis), appearance of mitotic activity in the third axillary meristem, swelling of apical and axillary meristems and appearance of primordial whorls) are presented comparatively. All cultivars showed similar ontogenetic trends but there were temporal differences in the initiation, the progress and the completion of the process. Cv. Amfissis initiated differentiation one week later compared to the other cultivars, also delaying the development of the second and the third axillary meristems. On the other hand, cvs. Kalamon and Chalkidikis delayed one week to complete the process when compared to cvs. Amfissis and Manzanillo.     

江苏省2008年疑似预防接种异常反应监测数据的分析评价

采用描述性流行病学方法对江苏省2008年疑似预防接种异常反应(Adverse event following immunization,AEFI)监测数据及网络直报系统运转情况进行分析和评价。共收集到AEFI报告个案6197例,其中疫苗引起的反应占98.97%,偶合症占0.95%,不明原因占0.02%,待定占0.06%。临床诊断分布是以发热、局部红肿和局部硬结等一般反应为多见,其次为异常反应中的过敏性皮疹,无菌性脓肿。全省AEFI网络直报系统运行正常,各项考核指标均完成得较好。采用统一的AEFI分类与临床诊断病例定义,通过网络直报系统的三级审核,报告的数据质量有了很大的提高。监测结果显示,全省免疫规划疫苗安全性与预防接种服务质量良好。